Appeal No. 2000-1973
Application 08/890,906
in C++ a program developer can define objects in which all or
some of the data variables and all or some of the related
functions are considered "private" or made available for use only
by the object itself. The claim recitation of "enforcing
encapsulation by restricting access to said first object data to
only first authorized method programs" brings in the meaning of
data hiding. It is not clear how appellants' definition of
"tight coupling of an object's data with an object's methods"
(Br5) relates to the concepts of modularity or data hiding.
Appellants argue that Kelly does not teach, disclose, or
suggest the enforcement of encapsulation (Br6). It is argued
that the access control information in Kelly involves only the
relationship between a program and an object, not between an
object method and object data, and, thus, Kelly only controls
access at the user/object level, not at the method/data level
(Br6). It is noted that the secondary reference to Endicott is
not offered to provide encapsulation and does not do so (Br6).
The examiner states that access controlled at the
user/object level does not preclude encapsulation at the
method/data level (EA9):
For example, a user could access a public method in the
objects taught by Kelly whereupon the public method
interface provided by the object then accesses and modifies
the object's private data. There is no disclosure by Kelly
that shows where a user may access an object's private data
directly, i.e., without going through a public method
interface.
- 6 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007